Kamala Harris officially accepts the Democratic nomination for president
Vice President Kamala Harris concluded the Democratic Party Convention by accepting her party’s nomination for president.
- Vice President Kamala Harris officially accepted the Democrats’ nomination for president on Thursday evening.
- Her remarks began by admitting that the path that had led her here was unexpected.
CHICAGO – Vice President Kamala Harris wanted to show the country who she is when she officially accepted the Democratic nomination Thursday night. Her speech contained few political elements and focused almost exclusively on introducing herself to the country and defining her political opponent.
Her remarks began with an admission that the path that had led her here was unexpected and ended with a crescendo that drew on the advice of her late mother.
“Don’t let anyone tell you who you are. Show them who you are,” Harris said in the most consequential speech of her political career.
For the Democratic Party, which was looking for a successor in Harris at the last minute, there was no turning back.
Now it was up to her to prevent the White House from falling back into Republican hands. The vice president, once considered a political liability to President Joe Biden, had managed to turn the narrative about her time in office on its head.
The fight ahead of her will be difficult, she said. But the former Attorney General of California and US Senator has gotten used to it.
More: “It means everything”: Howard University reacts to Kamala Harris’ historic nomination
“We were underestimated at every turn,” Harris recalled. “We were underestimated at every turn, but we never gave up.”
She ended the convention with a largely unified party base, aside from isolated cries of disapproval during her remarks on Israel, and gave vision-hungry Democrats a preview of what was to come.
Deafening cheers filled the air as Harris told party activists that she was accepting the nomination for president. And if the election did not go in her favor, she promised a peaceful transfer of power.
Her promise as president: to lead and listen, practically and with common sense.
“With this election, our nation has a precious, fleeting opportunity,” she said, “to put behind the bitterness, cynicism and divisive struggles of the past.”
Her husband, Doug Emhoff, came on stage first after her remarks, opening his arms to embrace Harris before giving her a kiss. Then came her running mate, Tim Walz, and his wife, Gwen. The two couples walked to the front of the stage, joined hands, and raised them high in the air in front of a roaring crowd.
Their immediate family followed, including Harris’ stepdaughter Ella Emhoff, who wiped tears from her eyes. The two women embraced as balloons rained down and Harris’ great-nieces punched and kicked them.
More: ‘A new path’: Kamala Harris re-introduces herself as Democrats reclaim Republicans’ patriotism
“We must be worthy of this moment. Now it is our turn to do what generations before us have done,” Harris said toward the end of her remarks.
As she and Walz have done in recent days as they refined their message, she emphasized that Americans have more in common than their beliefs sometimes suggest and that politics does not have to be a zero-sum game.
Harris largely stayed out of political issues.
As advisers had already indicated in advance of the speech, the speech contained few surprises.
She repeated her promises to solve the housing crisis and help the middle class through tax relief. She received particularly loud applause when she promised to pass the Democrats’ voting rights legislation.
On the immigration issue, she tried to strike a balance, saying the country could create a path to citizenship and secure its borders, but she did not provide further details.
“On the war in Gaza, President Biden and I are working around the clock because now is the time to negotiate a hostage deal and a ceasefire,” she said.
Harris received muted applause when she announced her support for Israel, and there was also some heckling from a relatively small group of delegates.
However, her words that the Palestinian people have a right to dignity, freedom and self-determination were drowned out by the cheering.
Her most powerful statements were designed to contrast her with Trump. He tried to throw away your votes, she said, and incited an armed mob to the nation’s capital. He was convicted of fraud and sexual abuse, she charged. He released insurrectionists and retaliated against journalists and his political opponents.
“Think of the power he will have,” she said of the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity. “Imagine Donald Trump without guardrails.”
She attacked Republicans’ stance on abortion rights, saying, “To put it simply, they’re crazy.”
After weeks of soul-searching about how to approach the former president, Harris and her campaign team ultimately came up with a message that was not much different from the one Biden had promoted before he dropped out of the election.
Unlike Trump, she said, she would not cling to dictators. Democracy versus tyranny. “I know where I stand, and I know where the United States belongs,” Harris said in a segment that focused specifically on foreign policy.
At the end of her speech, 100,000 balloons were blown up with the help of 75 volunteers, 30 staff members and about a dozen stagehands, it was said at the congress.
A supposed appearance by Beyoncé never materialized. Harris was the star of her own evening, with delegates chanting her name and giving her a standing ovation.
Biden was not present at the speech, but the White House said he had called Harris beforehand.
In a tribute at the beginning of her speech, Harris said she was filled with great gratitude and that his achievements were inspiring.
But for the party and the country, it was time to move on.
“We are not going back,” Harris said, leading the crowd in chanting her new slogan.
Francesca Chambers is a White House Correspondent for USA TODAY. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, @fran_chambers.
